Most businesses that have a mission statement probably spent a lot of time and thought (and money in some cases) carefully crafting it.  Over zealous and well meaning executives and consultants meticulously toiled (and probably feuded) over getting it ‘just right’ in hopes that it would both pull their team together, and at the same time impress prospects enough to want to do business with such a company. While no doubt there are many examples of truly great mission statements, for the most part I think they get trivialized or forgotten altogether by employees and largely ignored by their customers and prospects.  My hunch is this is due, in large part, to the fact that most mission statements are too long,  too cliche and too ‘formal’. What if your company was forced to declare a one word mission statement.  This word would have to be an action (verb).  Something that said “Billy, I want you to take this business, go out into the world and  ______.  Such a mission statement would certainly be easier to remember.  It could even be written (or symbolized) on every surface of your company to help remind people.  It could even make for a nice tattoo. With this blog post I am kicking off a collaborative project to research and publish the most powerful and effective one word mission statements.  I’d like to challenge well established, successful, and well known businesses to go through the effort of selecting their one word mission. So...

Why do so few companies have video testimonials from their clients on their websites?  Why don’t I?  There is absolutely no cost or technology barrier anymore.  So what’s our excuse? It might not look good enough.  A good heartfelt moment trumps technical quality any day.  Go back and look at your home movies if you don’t believe me. My clients might not be willing to do it.  Ask them, you’ll find out what you already knew in your heart, they’ll usually be happy to do it if their company would permit it. I’m not sure what to say, or have them say.  Forget video for now, go get someone to help you mine or craft a good reference letter and testimonial with them first. We have too many other things going on.  You’ll always have too many other things going on.  Once you get a video, it’s done and you can use it again and again. We don’t want our competitors seeing who our clients are.  Want to keep your competition at bay from your clients? Let them see how thrilled your clients are with you and they won’t waste their time.  And believe me your competitors can find out who your clients are whether you put them on video or not. Ask any B2B professional services company how they get the majority of their business and they will usually reply “word of mouth referrals.”  So why on earth would we not be leveraging one of the most sustainable and powerful ways to capture and distribute word of mouth referrals? What’s...

If your website is getting long in the tooth or is long overdue for a major redesign but you don’t want to spend a huge budget on designers, developers, and a content management system, one of the first places one should look is no further than WordPress. WordPress can do 80-90% of everything most B2B companies would need in terms of a simple lead generation/lead capture website.  You’d be amazed at how many websites are being built on WordPress.  Granted most of them have that ‘wordpress’ look and feel (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing), but the reduced time and budget to develop and deploy, you can put your dough into generating and converting traffic. Do not underestimate the opportunity cost of sending your prospects to a less than professional and up to date website.  Whether you want to believe it or not, it is usually the first or second impression one will get of your company and is a reflection and extension of you.  I’m not getting up on a design soapbox or being an aesthetic snob.  I’m simply saying if you wouldn’t go to a tradeshow in an old crappy suit or with a makeshift old booth, don’t allow your website (who is your 24-7 front line sales person) represent you in a poor light.  It’s too easily fixable.  If your website sucks, and you know it, check out WordPress and I guarantee you within a week and done completely on the side, you can have a much better website, selling tool, and source of company...

While it may seem simple, I’m amazed at how often a simple unique phone number for paid search campaigns is overlooked by clients and agencies.  At the very least, the landing pages of your B2B AdWords campaigns should have a unique phone number that can report the quantity of calls, and ideally record each call for reference, quality assurance, and training purposes.  Telecapture is a very easy and affordable solution to start.  It can be setup in minutes and your company can get immediate benefit from it.  Once you start using it, there are other more elaborate tools and methods you can use to track Google AdWords generated phone calls, as well as Bing, Business.com, or practically any on or offline campaign you would want. What phone tracking tools do you use?

Souly Business 24 from Todd Miechiels on Vimeo. Just returned from my 7th or 8th (I lost count) Souly Business.  Once again (no surprise anymore), God showed up and touched the lives of dozens of men in ways that can’t be overstated.  This retreat held 4 times a year makes leaders into better leaders, husbands into better husbands, fathers into better fathers, you get the idea.  In a 48 hour period, in a most beautiful and serene setting, with no watches, cell phones, or computers allowed, you spend time with the most humble, authentic, and nurturing people you could ever hope to meet.  Come with an open mind and an open heart and prepare to have your life, and by extension, those people you most love, changed forever.  It’s not a miracle pill or anything like that, but as John Woodall said this weekend, “a change in direction”, that puts you down the path towards true peace, freedom, and joy. This isn’t religious.  It isn’t anything like any church you’ve ever been to.  Brothers who have gone to church their entire lives come back knowing Christ, sometimes for the first time ever, in a completely new and liberating way. To many of my friends the idea of attending anything like this totally freaks them out.  No one I know that’s attended has ever come back with anything but a grateful heart and a completely new outlook on life (and death). I resist change.  I crave comfort. You won’t catch me doing anything real adventurous. ...